Saudi Arabia: Groundwater wastage

Local water experts notified the Saudi Arabian government on the danger of wasting as much as 30 percent of the country’s groundwater resources and warned that finite groundwater resources have been lost due to out-of-date extraction methods.

Mansur Abahusayn, a visiting scholar at the University of California, said at a renewable energy conference in Abu Dhabi that Saudi Arabia could reduce the amount of water wasted to 5 percent if the technology is changed.

He estimated the water would run out within 200 years at current usage rates, whereas new technology would allow the country to conserve supplies for 400 years.

Saudi Arabians used 5.5 million cubic metres a day of potable water in 2007, Abahusayn said, and the consumption is expected to rise to 9 million cubic metres a day in 2015, and 13 million by 2039.

About 55 percent of the Saudi Arabia’s water supply comes from seawater, while the rest is from groundwater.